


On Far Shores

by Aly_H



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Earthborn (Mass Effect), F/M, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Post-Priority: Citadel II
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 14:20:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17448620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_H/pseuds/Aly_H
Summary: The Citadel was saved - but not without a cost. Thane Krios is dead, and Shephard is left to mourn.A few brief snippets of scenes between Shephard and those around her as she deals with the loss of her love.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was really frustrated by the lack of attention that was paid by those around her to her loss. I get that Thane probably wasn't very close to most the Normandy crew but his name appears on the wall but NO ONE says a single damn thing about it. Joker, Garrus and Liara (if met in the Shadowbroker DLC) all probably knew about Shephard and Thane. Yet not one of them says a word to her. This is me fixing that.

There was Shephard sitting in the semi-darkness of the sleeping ship, staring at the memorial with a bottle dumped haphazardly at her side. Shephard didn’t drink – not alone – she hadn’t for as long as Ashley had known her.

Hell, for as long as she’d known Shephard she’d not known the woman to drink with company even. Most her drinks were virgin and if they weren’t Ash never saw Shephard actually _drink_ them. She remembered Wrex teasing Laura to no end about her sugary fizzy kid drinks on the first Normandy.

This was…that look was the one she’d seen too often on Sarah’s face.

“…I read the reports,” she hesitated, as her friend startled and tried to climb to her feet, tried to put herself back together and be Commander Shephard but wasn’t quite managing it. “That Drell - Thane? You were close, right?”

Rather than let her friend get upright Ash went and sat beside her. Shoulder to shoulder, Ash’s eye picking out ‘Alenko’ on the wall.

Laura wiped at her eyes with the corner of her sleeve, trying to scrub away the tears. Her cheeks already rubbed red from however long she’d been trying to stem the flow of them that way.

“…yeah,” she said at last. “Thane and I were…yeah. Close.”

“He saved my life,” Ash spoke slowly. “When Cerberus came for us at the hospital. He seemed like a good man.”

“He’d have probably said he wasn’t but…yeah,” Laura nodded, leaning her head against Ashley’s shoulder. “I knew…I knew this was going to happen – not like this – but soon…I’m being stupid.”

“Hey,” she said sharply, though she moved her arm to wrap it around her friend, pulling her into a hug. “No you’re not.”

“…I miss him,” Laura’s voice was quiet. “So damn much.”

She wasn’t sure what to say so she hugged her friend closer.


	2. Chapter 2

“No Shephard – the Normandy’s your real love.”

She flinched back – hard, like she’d been struck. Pain flashed across her face, her mouth opening and closing once before her expression stilled, but the ache still lingered in her eye, “Doesn’t mean I don’t want to say ‘to hell with it’ sometimes.”

“But you won’t – you can’t,” Jacob replied.

The nod was stiff, “I should get to work.” She turned and walked from the room.

Garrus lingered behind the others, his mandibles twitching for a moment in silence as he tried to find the words, “Thane’s dead. A Cerberus assassin killed him.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, so,” Garrus trailed off, leaving the rest of the sentence in silence.

**Author's Note:**

> I've not finished my play through with Laura yet but I suspect there will be at least a few more scenes added to this. Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see interactions between any particular characters on this theme.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
